News - page 1461

Evernote announced Monday the availability of Two-Step Verification for all its users, increasing security for everyone, instead of just the premium members.

In a blog post, Evernote’s Andrew Sinkov said that the software company values its users’ data security. The feature was introduced with a few other security measures last month, including Access History and Authorized Applications, but was only available for Evernote Premium and Evernote Business users.

These extra security features are now available to all Evernote users.

File this one under, “huh?”

CNBC reported Monday that billionaire hedge-fund investor Julian Robertson sold all of his shares in Apple because he’d recently read a biography of founder Steve Jobs, and found the former CEO of Apple to be a “really awful person.”

Robertson admits that the stock did very well for him, but would rather “let someone else make the money from now on,” as he said on CNBC’s investment show, Closing Bell.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has officially closed its review of Apple’s 2012 tax disclosures after finding that the company complies with the letter of the law. Apple’s practice of routing cash through international subsidiaries to avoid paying U.S. taxes, or the “Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich,” was called into question this summer by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee.

After being accused of implementing the “holy grail of tax avoidance” by Senator Carl Levin, Apple has been cleared of any current investigation by the SEC.

Tim Cook and other Apple executives testified at the Senate hearing this summer. “We pay all the taxes we owe,” said Cook at the hearing. “Every single dollar. We not only comply with the laws, but we comply with the spirit of the laws.” For now, the government agrees.

Source: AllThingsD

Image: Reuters

Music lovers rejoice! Capo, the Apple Design Award-winning app that teaches you how to play your favorite tunes, has been updated to version 3.0 today.

Developed by indie dev Chris Liscio of SuperMegaUltraGroovy, Capo 3 is a major redesign that packs several new features. The coolest addition of them all is automatic chord and beat detection that instantly analyzes a song loaded from iTunes and adjusts as you tune, change key, or start using a.. er.. capo.

Jonathan Zufi is an expert at taking beautiful photos of Apple products. He’s been doing it at the Shrine of Apple for years, and now he has a new book out called Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.

For an extensive, professional gallery of every Apple product imaginable, look no further. Zufi has assembled an immense tribute to Apple’s legacy that every fan of the company will appreciate.

Apple and Samsung are headed back to San Jose on November 12 to clash again over the retrial of their billion-dollar patent lawsuit that Apple won in 2012, and it looks like Scott Forstall might be coming back to testify as a witness for Apple.

The jury originally rewarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages, but after finding some errors in the awards, Judge Lucy Koh has cut $450 million from Apple’s award. Samsung and Apple filed a joint pretrail statement that listed the potential witnesses that might be called and both Scott Forstall and Apple’s marketing chief, Phil Schiller appeared on the list after both were witnesses at the orignal trial, before Forstall was fired. 

Fox News unveiled a first glimpse at its new studio for the Fox News Deck that features some insanely gigantic tablets  that will be used by Fox’s Information Specialist while the Shepard Smith serves up the hottest topics of interest.

The 55-inch Windows-based touchscreens will be used by the crew to sift through rumors on Twitter (four tweets at a time), confirm reports, and spin through Google Earth to deliver an entirely new experience, for better or worse. While the studio could easily morph into an arena for the world’s first televised Angry Birds tournament, Fox says the news deck is designed to appeal to viewers who are “non linear” and sift through news all day on their phones.

Check out this video of Sheppard showing off the new tablets and his Minority Report style 38-foot display.

Source: Fox News

Image: Gizmodo

Copenhagen-based games studio Full Control announced Monday a new, free, three mission campaign for its strategy game, Space Hulk, available for Mac and PC since last August.

The turn-based Space Hulk, set in the Warhammer 40,000 sci-fi universe, is a re-creation of Games Workshop’s original two-player Space Hulk board game, itself released in 1989. The new digital version is similar in many ways to the board game, with two-player tactical claustrophobia as a main focus.

The launch of the digital game was a bit rough, however, with lots of bugs and room for improvement. So the team decided to improve the game, squash the bugs, and–as a big “thank you” for the patience of its fans–has released a new three-mission campaign for free.

What’d Samsung ripoff from Apple this week? Well, you may have heard that the Galaxy Gear just dropped a few days ago. The reviews have been less than stellar, but to promote its smartwatch Samsung released a commercial that looks a whole lot similar to the very first iPhone commercial Apple dropped at the Oscars in 2007.

The original iPhone ad featured tons of famous movie scenes with someone picking up a phone and saying “hello,” and then a shot of the iPhone was finally shown at the end. Samsung has taken inspiration from Apple and released their own take but all the scenes are people using smartwatches like in Star Trek, Predator, and Inspector gadget.

Take a look a look for yourself and tell us what you think:

Yes, I know, Apple’s new iPhones have been on sale for just over two weeks, but industry watchers are already looking ahead to its successor. Traditionally, the biggest iPhone releases come every other year, so we expect the iPhone 6 to be a big improvement over the iPhone 5s — not just an incremental upgrade that adds a faster processor and an improved camera.

In addition to a new design, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek says the iPhone 6 will come with a larger 4.8-inch display that will satisfy critics and fans of larger phones.

Skype for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch has finally been updated for iOS 7. The new release, available to download now from the App Store, introduces a new, “refreshed look and feel,” as well as a number of improvements.

As you may know, every iOS beta has an expiration date. What happens, though, when you let that beta expire without upgrading to a more recent version? As thousands of people discovered over the weekend, your device gets bricked. If it happened to you, though, don’t sweat it: there’s a fix.

What’s the best selling smartphone in America right now? Duh. It’s the iPhone 5s. And the iPhone 5c? Either second place or third place at every carrier.

There’s something very ironic about an optical drive for the upcoming space-shaped [1] Mac Pro, like adding a fax machine to an iPhone. Better still is the fact that it’s not just any old optical drive, but a bag-of-hurt Blu-ray drive. And best of all is that this USB-connected optical drive is shaped to fit neatly underneath the Mac Pro as if it wasn’t there.

Most of us still don’t have an iPhone 5s, and that’s quadruply true of the hard-to-get gold model, leading to a perception of extremely limited demand. But how accurate is that perception? Not very, according to new channel supply tracking data from Piper-Jaffray. In fact, the iPhone 5s is easier to find two-and-a-half weeks after release than the iPhone 5 was.

Back when the iPhone 5 first came out, there were a surprising number of reports of people whose iPhones suddenly bent themselves. This did not seem to be an issue with accidental damage en masse: most of the people who reported the issue noted that their iPhones bent back at the volume button, and hadn’t been kept in a back pocket or sat on.

It seems with the iPhone 5s, this mysterious predilection towards bending has returned.

Everpix – in case my constant droning on and on about it wasn’t clear enough – is my favorite cloud photo service by far (I’m currently auditioning Picturelife as a possible alternative, but so far it’s not close). Now the web app has been updated to make it even easier to use. So easy and fast, in fact, that you could use it to replace iPhoto on your Mac.

There’s a lot to be said for organizing your photos into folders in the Finder. In fact, if you’re using an app like Lightroom to organize your photos, then you’re already doing this, albeit with a super-helpful cataloging and editing application laid on top.

But you need some sort of organization, right? And that’s where the amazing Dr. Drang comes in, with a couple of shell scripts do the work for you.

This amazing KnowRoaming sticker looks too good to be true, but as it’s from Canada, it must be the real deal. The KnowRoaming is a sticker which covers your existing SIM card and automatically switches your iPhone to a local network provider when you travel abroad, avoiding crazy roaming fees when you travel.

The NewTrent Gladius case isn’t the first iPad case we’ve seen with a grabby handle on the back, but it is the first we’ve seen that uses a leather strap on a plastic case. This also makes it the first case that would let you play a game of “My Little Subway Car.” Just glue the iPad to the ceiling of your bathroom and hang from the strap. For extra realism, piss in a corner a few hours before “embarking” and have family and friends pass through from time to time, asking you for money.

Netflix 5 brings HD video and AirPlay to iPads running iOS 7. You may have thought you had HD video streaming to your retina iPad, but you didn’t. 5 fixes that, and it also lets you throw your TV shows and movies up onto your big screen via Apple TV with native AirPlay streaming.

We’re hearing a lot more of Laurene Powell Jobs’ name lately, with her new media venture, Ozymandias, various philanthropic efforts, her long-standing involvement with College Track, and more recent involvement in immigration reform.

While her name may be more well known to readers of this site as the widow of the Apple founder and superstar, but as time passes since his death, she has been stepping into the spotlight more often, becoming more visible as the world’s ninth richest woman and an active philanthropist in her own right.

As Saturday is the anniversary of Steve Jobs’ passing (and we’ve got an entire Newsstand issue to commemorate it), it seemed fitting to take a closer look at the woman who was by his side since 1991.

Gone but not forgotten: this week Cult of Mac Magazine pays homage to late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

We speak to Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell who knew Jobs back when he was so difficult to be around he landed on the night shift, hear from Cult of Mac publisher Leander Kahney what it was like to cover tech with such an outsize personality always storming the headlines, share some of the best everyday anecdotes from people who encountered Jobs plus take a look at the best tributes to the man called the Edison of our times.

The latest issue is available in the App Store.

We hope you’ll enjoy it – and keep in touch with comments, questions, shout-outs – we’re listening!

Among his many talents, Steve Jobs was one of the great orators and inspiring speakers of our time. Part sage, part showman, Jobs combined the wizardry of a magician with the skills of a master salesman. On this, the second anniversary of his death, we take a video look back at some of his memorable demos, quotes and speeches.

We begin with one of the most influential demos of all – the unveiling of the Macintosh. While many people have seen the 1984 TV commercial, far fewer saw the event in person. Giving a hint of keynotes to come, a tuxedo-clad Jobs and his magical child steal the show on January 24, 1984.

It’s been two years now, since Steve Jobs passed, so on our newest CultCast, we remember Mr. Jobs, examine how he pushed those around him to their creative bests, and ponder how his absence impacts the company he left behind. And stick around until the end where we’re rebroadcasting, in full, one of Steve’s most special appearances.

Have a few laughs whilst getting caught up on each week’s finest Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the unadulterated audio enjoyment begin. Show notes up next.